Jimmy Page has responded to recent plagiarism claims.

Lawyers representing the group Spirit claim the intro to Led Zeppelin’s 1971’s “Stairway To Heaven” resembles their 1968 track “Taurus”.

Along with the rest of Led Zeppelin, Page originally declined to comment on the allegations.

Now, as Page conducts a publicity tour for the June 3 re-release of Led Zeppelin’s first three albums, France’s Liberation newspaper has put the question to him directly.

“The group Spirit accuses you of having copied one of their songs for Stairway to Heaven,” journalist Guillaume Tion said in the interview, which was published in French.

Page replied: “That’s ridiculous. I have no further comment on the subject.”

A lawyer for the trust of Spirit’s late guitarist Randy Alexander has said that he is preparing a copyright infringement lawsuit, which he has yet to file.

In an earlier interview with the New York Times, Page was asked about Led Zeppelin’s use of material from blues musicians who got belated credit. He said the distinctive guitar part from one of those songs, Whole Lotta Love, was purely his. “I had a riff, which is a unique riff, O.K.,” he said.

When asked in the Liberation interview what the hardest song was for Led Zeppelin to put together in the studio, Page said it was “Stairway” because of its accelerating tempo. “But it wasn’t insurmountable for the brilliant musicians that we are,” he added, laughing.

Chrissie Hynde has spoken about working with Neil Young on her new solo album, Stockholm.

Chrissie Hynde is set to release Stockholm on June 10 and is joined by Neil Young on guitar for the song, “Down The Wrong Way”. In an interview with the BBC, Hynde said: “Neil is the pot-smoking, loveable hippie that you think he is and that everyone loves,” adding, “And he’s exactly what you think he’s going to be… But he’s also God. You wouldn’t think of asking him to do you a favor. Just out of respect.”

Hynde had written the song with Bjorn Yttling of Swedish indie band Peter, Bjorn and John early in the process, and kept referring to it as the “Neil Young song” due to its sound while teasing Yttling that she could get him on the song. After about six months, she finally invited Young into the session where he recorded his part in only a few takes.

“He blew the lid off the place,” she continued. “We were all fighting over the plectrum he left. We’re talking about grown men in tears.”

Read Uncut’s review of Neil Young’s new album, A Letter Home here.

Metallica performed their 1988 track “The Frayed Ends Of Sanity” live for the first time ever last night (May 28).

The band played the track from the …And Justice For All album at Sonisphere Festival in Helsinki. The show was part of the Metallica By Request series of gigs, where the setlist for the evening is chosen by fans voting for songs they want to hear from a collection of 130 tracks.

Consequence of Sound reported that “The Frayed Ends Of Sanity” was, until last night, the only song from the band’s nine-album back catalogue that they had never played live in full.

Meanwhile, Metallica’s self-titled 1991 LP (The Black Album), has just become the first album to reach 16 million sales since SoundScan started tracking sales data in 1991. Billboard reported that The Black Album and Shania Twain’s Come On Over are the only two albums to sell over 15 million in the US since 1991. The Black Album hit the 16 million sales mark in the week finishing May 25, with 3,000 sales bringing its total to 16,002,000.

Mick Jagger recently said that he thought Metallica were going to be “great” when they headline this year’s Glastonbury festival.

The Rolling Stones headlined the event last year, and Jagger has backed the decision to book the first metal artists to headline Glastonbury in its 44-year history. “I’ve seen them live and they’re going to be great,” he told The Sun, adding that The Rolling Stones had a “great time” headlining the event.

The Black Keys performed an intimate show at Nashville’s 500-capacity Mercy Lounge last night.

It was reported in Rolling Stone that Dan Auerbach, Patrick Carney and a pair of sidemen played to an invite-only crowd of competition winners. They were there via SiriusXM, which broadcasted the hour-long show live on its “Alt Nation” station.

Performing tracks like “Howling For You“, “Next Girl” and “Gold On The Ceiling”, the band apparently had to adjust to playing such a small venue, with Dan Auerbach trying to find a way to get comfortable in front of such a close-knit crowd. “Strange Times” brought up some of the rough grit of their club days.

The Black Keys’ eighth LP, Turn Blue, made its debut at the top of the Billboard Albums Chart this month, to commercial and critical acclaim.

Arcade Fire appeared on Later… with Jools Holland last night (May 27).

The band were introduced by Jonathan Ross, who appears on the Reflektor track “You Already Know”. He previously joined the band onstage at Coachella earlier this year.

The album version of the song features a recording of Ross introducing the group on his chatshow in 2007. During the now-infamous subsequent performance, Win Butler smashed a camera with his guitar and stormed off, allegedly angry that he had to share the green room with all the other guests.

As well as headlining this year’s Glastonbury Festival, Arcade Fire will bring their Reflektor tour to the UK next week, playing two dates at London’s Earls Court. They will then return to London to play a huge show at Hyde Park on July 3.

Mick Jagger has said that he thinks Metallica are going to be “great” when they headline this year’s Glastonbury Festival.

Metallica are the first metal artists to headline Glastonbury in its 44-year history, and will perform on the Saturday night.

“I’ve seen them live and they’re going to be great,” Jagger told The Sun, adding that The Rolling Stones had a “great time” headlining the event.

The Rolling Stones resumed their world tour earlier this week, playing to a sold-out crowd of 23,000 at Oslo’s Telenor Arena, and will now continue with a tour of Europe. Read their setlist for the Oslo show – which included a performance of the rarely played “Can’t Be Seen” from the 1989 album Steel Wheels – here.

Ray Davies made an appearance at the Hay Festival on Tuesday, May 26.

During the interview, Davies discussed his forthcoming induction into the American Songwriters’ Hall of Fame on June 12 and his ongoing relationship with the US.

According to The Telegraph Davies told the Hay Festival audience that the honour was “a big deal because it means that America has finally accepted the Kinks”.

Following a string of bust-ups, The Kinks were banned from performing in the United States for nearly five years before being allowed back into the country in 1969. “We were dangerous and America felt threatened,” Davies said. “America felt safe until all the Brit bands like us and the Beatles and the Rolling Stones came along in the Sixties. But we helped change America, too. When we returned after the end of our ban the culture had been liberalised. Bands such as the Doors, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention had grabbed back their culture.”

It took a lot of hard work by Ray Davies and his brother Dave to gain popularity, in arduous tours that Davies said were planned like a “military exercise”. The motivation was “vengeance” he added.

The American ban turned out to have a positive impact on the band’s musical output. Davies, who will be 70 next month, believes that it allowed him to focus on creating his own English songs of identity.

However, Davies said that America has still had a profound influence on his life. His new book, Americana: The Kinks, the Road and the Perfect Riff speaks of the excitement he felt as a teenager in ’50s Britain, when it was America’s rock, jazz, blues, country, Cajun and Dixieland music that “liberated” him and “gave me an identity”.

Asked whether the American influence had been the same for Keith Richards, Davies replied: “I can’t speak for Keith Richards . . . somebody should.”

Fans in the audience asked whether there would be a reunion. “Ah, we were always tempestuous,” he said, recalling the time that drummer Mick Avory “tried to kill my brother on stage in Cardiff”. The altercation ended with Dave unconscious and hospital treatment for a wound requiring 16 stitches. Ray Davies said a reunion would require new music, adding: “In any case, my brother still has an issue with the drummer. If they resolve their issues, I might be there.”

A musical about The Kinks, Sunny Afternoon, opened this month to rave reviews. The show details The Kinks invasion of America as well as their ban at the height of their career, told with music and lyrics by Ray Davies.

Brian May has confirmed that Queen will release an album before the end of 2014 which will feature unreleased vocals by Freddie Mercury.

May said the album is likely to be titled Queen Forever and that Mercury’s vocals date back to the 1980s. He explained that he and Roger Taylor recently recorded instrumental tracks for the songs, based on original “scraps” of unreleased music.

In an interview recorded in September 2013 with iHeart Radio, May revealed that an album in the style of the 1995 Queen album Made In Heaven, pieced together after Mercury’s death in 1991, could be in the pipeline.

The album may include a previously unheard duet with Michael Jackson, recorded in 1983, which Taylor revealed in March existed in the Queen vaults. Since Mercury’s death in 1991, Queen have released one album of recordings, 1995’s Made In Heaven.

Mercury and Jackson worked together 30 years ago in California but failed to release anything substantial as they could not secure time to record further tracks.

“We had to start from scratch,” May told BBC Radio Wales this week. “Knowing how it would have happened if we’d finished the songs, I can sit there and make it happen with modern technology. It’s quite emotional. It’s the big, big Queen ballads and the big, big epic sound.”

The new issue of Uncut went on sale last Friday, with a cover story on Paul Weller and features on Bob Dylan in the 80s, Dolly Parton , Black Sabbath, Allen Toussaint, Harry Dean Stanton, Sharon Van Etten and The Shadows – a joyously eclectic mix by any standards.

This month’s free CD, meanwhile, features tracks from new albums by Dave Alvin And Phil Alvin, The Felice Brothers, Strand Of Oaks, Wovenhand, Sam Brookes, The Antlers, Amen Dunes, Vikesh Kapoor, Lee Fields & The Expressions, Cara Dillon, Broken Records, Ethan Johns, The Rails, Sturgill Simpson and Sharon van Etten.

Here’s taster for the CD.

STRAND OF OAKS

Goshen ’97

WOVENHAND

Good Shepherd

THE ANTLERS

Palace

AMEN DUNES

Splits Are Parted,/strong>

Bruce Springsteen has posted a video on his YouTube channel paying tribute to servicemen who died during the Vietnam War.

The video is a performance of High Hopes’ track “The Wall” recorded April 19, 2014 at Charlotte, North Carolina.

Describing the song as “a short prayer for my country”, he explained it was inspired by Walter and Roy Chichon, from local New Jersey group called the Motifs.

Ray Chichon gave Springsteen guitar tuition. Both the Chichon brothers lost their lives in Vietnam. Springsteen also payed tribute to Bart Haynes – the drummer of his first band, the Castiles – who also died during the conflict.

A Pennsylvania federal judge has ordered sanctions against the attorney preparing to sue Led Zeppelin for “Stairway to Heaven,” claiming that the lawyer behaved “in a flagrantly unprofessional and offensive manner” over the course of a different case.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Francis Malofiy recently attracted the judge’s consternation while bringing a lawsuit against Usher and 19 other defendants for copyright infringement.

Malofy represented a songwriter named Dan Marino, who claimed that he had created the basic melody, chord progressions and tempo for the Usher song “Bad Girl” while working with his former songwriting partners William Guice and Dante Barton, who were also named in the suit. According to Judge Paul Diamond’s sanctions memorandum, Malofiy misled Guice into believing that he was only a witness in the suit rather than a defendant, and persuaded Guice to sign an affidavit admitting to elements of the Plaintiff’s complaint without representation from a lawyer.

“Malofiy’s discussions with Guice are the paradigm of bad faith and intentional misconduct,” Judge Diamond wrote, and later concluded, “Defendants have shown clearly and convincingly that Attorney Francis Malofiy has acted disgracefully: lying to an unsophisticated, impoverished, unrepresented Defendant, thus convincing that Defendant to expose himself (probably baselessly) to substantial liability.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the judge said that Malofiy made “sexist, abusive” remarks during the case, including telling the other lawyer, “Don’t be a girl about this.” He also reportedly declared that, “Usher has $130 million … I’m going to take every penny of it,” and told someone else involved in the case, “You’re like a little kid with your little mouth.” As to the copyright infringement lawsuit, the judge did not find that Usher or his fellow defendants acted improperly.

In a press release, Malofiy objected to the judge’s conclusions and stated that he was “upfront and honest with Mr. Guice”.

He has claimed that Led Zeppelin stole the intro for their 1971 song “Stairway to Heaven” from Spirit’s 1968 track “Taurus”. Malofiy said that he will file a copyright infringement lawsuit and seek an injunction to block the release of the Led Zeppelin IV reissue, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.

The Rolling Stones resumed their #14ONFIRE tour in Olso, Norway on Monday night.

The band played to a sold-out crowd of 23,000 at Oslo’s Telenor Arena, with a show that lasted over two hours, Reuters reports. The next show will take place in Lisbon on May 29.

Keith Richards took centre-stage in Oslo to bring back the rarely played “Can’t Be Seen” from the 1989 album Steel Wheels. The song was last heard at a gig 15 years ago in 1999.

“Let’s Spend The Night Together” was performed for the first time since 2007 as a fan request. Fans can vote for songs to be played on the tour at rollingstones.com.

Mick Taylor is still guest performer on the tour, joining the band for “Midnight Rambler” and “Satisfaction”. The set was generally consistent with previous Stones shows from the 50th anniversary tour.

The Rolling Stones played:

‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’

‘It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Like It)’

‘All Down The Line’

‘Tumbling Dice’

‘Worried About You’

‘Doom and Gloom’

‘Let’s Spend The Night Together’

‘Emotional Rescue’

‘Honky Tonk Women’

‘You Got The Silver’

‘Can’t Be Seen’

‘Midnight Rambler’

‘Miss You’

‘Gimme Shelter’

‘Start Me Up’

‘Sympathy For The Devil’

‘Brown Sugar’

‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’

‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’

A rare early Velvet Underground record made in 1966 and sold at auction in 2006 for $25,200 will be going back up for auction this July.

The so-called Scepter Studios acetate contains several songs that would eventually be released on the group’s landmark debut, The Velvet Underground & Nico, the following year, including alternate takes and mixes for “I’m Waiting for the Man”, “Venus in Furs” and “Heroin”. It is one of only two known surviving copies, with drummer Mo Tucker possessing the other copy.

The seller, a New York man who wishes to remain anonymous, told Rolling Stone that he initially bought the record both as a piece of musical history and financial investment.

“I watched the auction first just because it was so rare, I was curious to see how high the sale would go,” he said. “I bought it for $25,200, which, in my mind, was extremely undervalued for what the record was. I’m a big Velvet Underground fan, but to be honest, I’ve never been a big fan of this album. But the significance of the record for music is unmistakable. It’s obviously a piece of musical history, but I wouldn’t have purchased it then if I didn’t see its potential as a financial investment.”

In April 1966, engineer Norman Dolph recorded the test pressing in secret and after hours in exchange for a painting by the group’s then-manager Andy Warhol. Warhol wanted to record and cut the acetate before the band signed to a record label to minimize label intrusion.

In 2002, record collector Warren Hill saw the acetate at a street sale in New York City and bought it for 75 cents, putting the record up for auction on eBay in 2006. Though the record initially sold for $155,401, it was determined that the winning bidder was fraudulent. Hill re-auctioned the vinyl record with more stringent buying requirements in place, selling the acetate to its current owner.

The New York seller told Rolling Stone that once he bought the record, he immediately placed it in a safe and chose not to listen to it. “It wasn’t worth it to me to even handle the record, let alone drag a needle across it,” he said. “This is not a conventional record that can be played thousands and thousands of times. It’s an acetate; it’s the equivalent of a CD you’d burn 10 years ago.”

In 2012, the acetate was officially released as the fourth disc of the album’s “45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition” box set and a limited edition of 5,000 copies of the acetate were sold as part of Record Store Day that same year.

Shuga Records, a Chicago record store specializing in rare and one-of-a-kind records, is assisting in the logistics of the sale, and told Rolling Stone that the acetate finds the band at its most individualistic. “This record represents a different take on the music industry, in which the labels were kept out of the mix to avoid artistic compromise, and the completed recording was pitched as-is,” a spokesperson for the store said. “This is the Velvets as the Velvets and Andy Warhol saw them, unencumbered by label A&Rs worrying about how this lyric might affect album sales, or the music being hard to digest.”

Shuga Records has set up a website detailing more information about the sale, including the creation of a hand-crafted wooden LP featuring a replica label from the acetate. The seller would not disclose how much he is expecting the record to sell for, but says that 10 percent of the sale’s proceeds will go to an animal rights charity.

Nick Cave and Roger Waters are amongst those who have penned music for Marianne Faithfull‘s new album.

Give My Love To London will be released this September, featuring lyrics by Faithfull and music from a host of guest artists, including Pat Leonard, Tom McRae and Steve Earle. Faithfull will be backed by guest musicians Warren Ellis and Jim Sclavunos, from the Bad Seeds, as well as Portishead’s Adrian Utley on guitar, keyboards from Ed Harcourt, and a string quartet. The album has been produced by Rob Ellis and Dimitri Tikovoi, and mixed by Flood. Marianne Faithfull begins a year long world tour this autumn.

Yesterday (May 22) Nick Cave and Warren Ellis accepted the Album Award at the 59th Ivor Novello Awards in London for Push The Sky Away, beating Arctic Monkeys’ AM. The prize was presented by Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders.

“This is the one to get,” said Cave. “We don’t really go to many of these awards evenings but we come to this one.” He then thanked Ellis, with whom he co-wrote the album, saying, “He taught me how to dispense with three chords and get it down to one.”

David Bowie’s long-term producer Tony Visconti and Mick “Woody” Woodmansey – the only surviving member of The Spider’s From Mars – will perform Bowie’s third album The Man Who Sold The World, from 1970, in full. They will be joined by an ensemble of ten musicians including Spandau Ballet saxophone player Steve Norman and Heaven 17’s Glenn Gregory, The Guardian reports. The event will take place at The Garage on September 17.

“The Man Who Sold the World was the first album Mick Ronson and I played on, our first even in a proper London studio, yet it never got played live,” Woodmansey told The Guardian. “It was the forerunner of what we could do sound-wise, and we just let rip. We spent three weeks recording [it] because we were creating the songs as we went.”

“This was the album that showed Bowie trying out things and finding his direction. The Man Who Sold The World was his first step into rock’n’roll. It got critical acclaim, but we never toured it, and in the live shows the album tracks never got touched on. So the idea of being able to go out and finally play some of those great tracks live was just so exciting.”

Visconti added that the album is key in Bowie’s career: “The Man Who Sold The World became the blueprint for the rest of David’s career. Virtually everything he’s done since, you can trace back to something on that album.”

Bowie has reportedly given his blessing to the project.